国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

the tops of the pots (+31.5 feet), and the bottom of the narrow walls had the
same elevation, they must all have belonged to the same establishment. The
wide wall (A) which was found first is, therefore, to be referred to a younger period.

Further to the north and at +30 feet—that is, 1.5 feet deeper than the hearths
and the tops of the pithoi—there occurred several stones. Among these were
an elongated stone with a round depression, evidently a door-stone—that is, a
stone with a hole polished and scratched by the rotary motion of the pivot on
which the door swung—and an elongated stone standing on its broken end, with a
deep longitudinal groove, presumably a whetstone. The positions of the stones
and the pithoi are shown in figs. 26 and 27 and in the vertical section in fig. 24.

The greatest interest attached naturally to the examination of the earthen-
ware vessels standing in the floor. Pot a, standing nearest the wall of the terrace,
had a cavity of 6.6 inches depth, filled with loose earth, mixed with ashes and
charcoal. Pot b, standing nearer
the center of the excavation, con-
tained unburnt earth in the upper
part; under this a whitish, fine
mass; still deeper, reddish-yellow
burnt earth mixed with charcoal;
and below this a quantity of the
same white substance that was
observed near the top. Further
examination, after exposing the
outside of the pots, showed that
they had no bottoms, but had
been placed in the earth as if
without the lower half, their shape
representing practically a hemi-
sphere; and that their surface,
originally red, was much black-
ened by fire. The interior was
largely plastered over with clay,
which was also burnt red; even the base on which the half-pots rested showed,
to a considerable depth, red color due to burning. The long-continued and
repeated use of these hearths is shown by the remains of an older pot under pot b.
When this pot became useless, it was evidently replaced by pot b.

What is the significance of these pots surrounded with traces of fire? The
hard-burnt earth surrounding the outside of the pots and filling the interior,
and the charcoal and ash-like white mass found in the interior, allow only one
interpretation. The pots must have been bake-ovens heated from the interior.
Similar pot-like forms are still used as ovens in Turkestan, where I myself have
seen them, and Mr. Huntington assures me that they are used also in Persia.

South of wall A, in terrace 1a, workmen had exposed on March 26 several
skeletons at a depth of about 4.25 feet under the original surface of the hill, but